The Little Black Sambo is a children's book. The author, Helen Bannerman, did not mean for the story she wrote for her children to be racest in any way, some of the American readers saw it that way . In the story, Sambo's mother,Black Mumbo, makes him a new red coat, new blue pants, and buys him a umbrella.Sambo encounters a group of tigers that threaten to eat him but he gives each tiger a different part of his clothing. The tigers begin to fight with one another and turn into a pile of butter. Black Mumbo makes pancakes out of it and Little Black Sambos family eats them.
Once the story arrived in America, Sambo became used as a racial slur due to the picture of Little Black Sambo which became synonymous of an African American person.
Pitch black skin, big red lips,and white eyes were the caractiers components that made the book "racist"
The significance of this book is that the book brought up so much attention that it was banned for racial reasons. Due to the picture and the racial slur sambo.
I guess that people did not understand the phase don't judge a book by its cover, because this book is about a boy that makes pancakes out of tigers not racism.
The word "Sambo"alludes to stereotypical aspects of the African American people and is used in an insulting way.
The Little Black Sambo
by Helen Bannerman